Our fortunes cannot lie
by Sweet Lunatick
Summary: *formerly Fourtune Tells No Lies* Following her return from Japan, the gang can't help but notice how strange Yumi's acting. Is there anyway that XANA could be behind this? Yumi was out of the country when that tower was activated...
1. A bad start

Well hello there dear people, I don't know if you get a notification when I changed a chapter or not, if not then I guess we'll have to wait until I've updated this, but if you do the awesome :D basically, I decided to rewrite this, I couldn't bear to read it anymore, it's so bad ;-; It's not entirely rewrite everything, more just going over what I've already written and changing words/sentecens hopefully making characters more in character and to put it simply, extreme beta reading xD

I suppose all I can say is enjoy and keep reading to see the rest of the chapters become readable.

* * *

**A bad start is only just the beginning.  
**Chapter 1

**(Ulrich's POV)**

I laid on my bed, my pillow moulded into my face in an attempt to block out Odd's blaring MP3 player; which he seemed to increase in volume whenever I shouted at him. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that Yumi was coming back today I wouldn't have bothered waking up. I mean there's Odd; I've got three tests which I will inevitably fail; Jeremy thinks that a certain someone might attack soon and to top it all off, according to Jer, Mr I-can-deffeat-the-scyphovoa(William) is getting stronger.

"I hate him so much," I whispered to myself, my hands crushing the pillow above my head in anger, if I could see them I bet my knuckles would've turned white from the intensity of the force which I was gripping the soft object with. Then I soon realised that the music had stopped and Odd had just heard me say that. Great.

"Hate who?" he asked me, head cocked to the side in confusion...why couldn't you just keep listening to your music Odd?

"Errr…" I paused, I couldn't say it was William, there was no way, I knew that if I did Odd would just say it was because I liked Yumi, which although was true I'd never admit it, at least not yet, "…XANA, I mean Yumi's coming back today, and it wouldn't be fair if he attacked us."

"Ulrich, old buddy," Odd said putting his headphones back on, " XANA isn't fair we just gotta deal with it and kick his and Williams asses when they attack," and with that said, music started screaming out of the headphones again, I swear it's a miracle that Odd isn't deaf yet. Seriously.

I knew that I wasn't going to be hearing anything from Odd save for his his terrible singing for the next half hour, so I decided to make use of my time and rescue by ears by taking a shower and maybe brushing up on some math for the test later. I walked down to the shower room shower gel in hand and the towel over my shoulder, only to find a line longer than the girls on a day Sissy decides to be 'extra careful' putting her make-up on; well at least that's what Aelita's told me. Could this day get any worse? I take back what I said earlier; maybe I shouldn't have bothered waking up.

After about 10 minutes of waiting, which involved reading over the back of the shower gel bottle multiple times and straining my hearing to see if I could hear Odd down the hall; I finally got to go in the shower. As I turned it on a sigh of relief left my lips as the warm water cascaded down me, I'd half expected the water to be cold, so it felt good for at least one thing to go right so far today and with Yumi coming back, I think the rest of today is going to prett good.

When I got back to my room, after a shower that probably lasted far longer than it should have, I looked at the time and saw that I still had 20 minutes until breakfast and that Odd was _still_ listening to his MP3 player, and so I went up to him snatched the headphones from his head and ordered him to go take a shower.

I sighed, with Odd gone I'd have some peace and quiet. Deciding that it would be best to try and prevent another failure of a test, I sat down on my bed, opened the nearest text book, which happened to cover math and started reading, my eyes darting back and forth as I read about various things that made my head hurt just thinking about it.

A while later, Odd had come back, hair magically dry and up in its trade mark point and we decided it was time to go to breakfast...well Odd decided, I was just dragged from my bed, but I managed to grab the text book so I could at least read over it, if it didn't get covered in Odd's food whilst he ate that is.


	2. Little weird

And chapter 2 has been improved, this still isn't particularly good in my opinion, but as I said, I'm not rewriting this, I'm just making some extreme changes so it's less cringe worthy xD

* * *

**Upon her return; she's acting a little weird  
**Chapter 2

**(No ones POV)**

The typical Lyoko gang sat in the cafeteria at their usual table, talking about the usual things, XANA, the anti-virus, how many monsters they'd defeated on Lyoko, just their normal topic of comversation.

"Ya no," Odd sighed leaning casually back in his chair, after finishing his third helping, "what are we gonna talk about when XANA's shut down? I mean, when was the last time we talked about something other than XANA and Lyoko?"

"Huh, I guess you're right Odd," Jeremy mused, slightly surprised by the truthfulness of Odds comment.

"Although you're right Odd," Aelita remarked, "there isn't really much else to talk about, what happens with XANA is about the most exciting thing that actually happens around here."

"Yeah you're right," Odd smirked, "the only thing that would be more exciting than Lyoko, would be either you and Einstein admitting that you like each other; Mr and Mrs emo doing the same, or Sissi developing a brain," he laughed receiving glares from both his friends and Sissi who had over heard the end of the comment, causing a small silence between the group.

"Well…" Aelita murmured standing up and breaking the silence, "I'm going to go and wait for Yumi at the bench, are any of you coming?"

The three boys nodded, forgetting about what Odd had said and and headed out of the door towards where they had arranged to meet Yumi, Aelita leading the way.

During their waiting time, which was still permeated with silence, a horror worse than XANA came up to the four friends, turned to Ulrich and in an ear piercing voice said, "Ulrich dear, could you come and tutor me for the math test later, I don't understand any of it."

"Well Sissi _dear_," Ulrich answered, every word dripping with sarcasm, "In case you haven't noticed, I'm waiting for Yumi to come back from a two week holiday, and besides, I'm not _that_ good at math. You know what, you should get Herve to help you, I heard he got a B last time, second in the class."

"Yeah, right behind Jeremy," interrupted Odd.

The black haired girl pouted, crossed her arms over her chest and stormed off towards the tree that Nicolas and Herve stood under, ignoring the questions she received from the two boys when she got there.

"Well that was horrible," Ulrich sighed, "why does she always go for _me_?!"

"She's jealous of Yumi, she likes you, she's jealous of Yumi, she wants to be part of the group, she's jealous of Yumi…" Odd said counting his fingers for every reason, and making sure to put an emphasis on the repeated reason.

"Are you done?" Ulrich, who was getting rather irritated with Odd dropping these 'hints,' asked.

"Odd, if you're done annoying Ulrich, you might just notice that Yumi's coming," Jeremy sighed as he pointed out their Japanese friend to the two boys.

When the group laid eyes on their friend, they all ran up to her and encased her in a big huge group hug, happy that she was finally back, their worries about having to deal with XANA without her over. However, when they'd finally let go, after almost suffocating said girl, they realised two things, 1. Yumi didn't react and 2. Yumi wasn't smiling; she just had blank expression on her face. Now, they could all understand that she'd be sad about being back at school from a holiday, but the thing was Yumi didn't want to leave. She kept coming up with excuses and trying to stay, she even suggested staying with Aelita in here room while her family was away, but both her parents and her friends were having none of it. Not only had her parents told her that she was going no matter what, the Lyoko warriors had all told her to go too, no matter how much they were worried about dealing with XANA with one less person, they knew that it was good to have a break and since the chance was there for Yumi, the told her to take it.

"Hellooo…Yumi….Hellooo," Odd yelled at the girl when she hadn't responded to them, he attempted to wave his hands in front of her face, but, failed miserably due to his lack of height.

"Oh, yeah, hi everyone…uh…I um brought gifts for you guys when I was in Japan,"

Yumi paused for a moment as if wondering what she should say next, "...were there any XANA attacks while I was gone?"

"No thankfully he didn't attack," Jeremy said, the relief in his voice evident.

Ulrich rolled his, a playful smirk on his lips, "c'mon Yumi, you're gone for two weeks and the first thing you ask us is whether or not XANA attacked?"

"Well, I was just worried," she mumbled her voice distant as she took her bag from her back, "anyway, I got presents for you guys while I was in Japan."

She couldn't help the smile that graced her lips as three of the friends faces lit up, while one stayed the same because of his ability to keep his emotions hidden behind those deep brown eyes, "ok, so, Aelita, I got you a pink necklace, with princess written on the back in Japanese; Jeremy, since Tokyo is big on tech, I got you this err..well I'm not sure what it's exactly, but, I think it's some powerful info on anti viruses; Odd, I got you something from my grandmothers shop, it's a small shop, full of home made, traditional, Japanese sweets and cakes, so I got you a small selection box with little bits of everything in it. Sorry Ulrich, those things are full of sugar, so neither you nor Odd are gonna get much sleep until Odd's finished those," Yumi smiled sheepishly before continuing, "anyway, Ulrich, well it was a bit harder to pick your gift, but, in the end I decided on this," Yumi pulled a medium size samurai sword and case out of her bag and handed it to Ulrich, "oh, Ulrich, turn the case over, I also got your name engraved in the case."

"Wow Yumi, how'd you get this, I heard that these things are really expensive, even for smaller ones like this one," Ulrich asked completely awe struck at the weapon that was now in his hands.

"Oh…well...umm we went to see our cousins, and they were having a garage sale, and this was there, I guess it made me think of you," Yumi smiled almost dreamily, but she quickly added, ".. because you're a samurai on Lyoko."

"Hey Yumi," Odd shouted.

"WhatOdd?" she sighed turning to face the eccentric boy, who was no doubt already hyperactive on the overdose of sugar she'd just handed to him.

"What's this?" Odd asked, not doing or asking what Yumi had expected as he jumped up and ripped the book that Yumi was hugging close to her out of her hands.

"ODD DELLA-ROBIA! Give that back _now_, or I'll rip your _head_ off!" Yumi practically screamed as she drop kicked Odd to the ground, tore the book out of his hands and ran off; all in one swift movement. She was gone before the younger Lyoko warriors could even register what had happened.

There was a long pause.

"Odd," Aelita sighed, "you're an idiot."

"Wait…WHAT? _I'm_ the idiot!" Odd said insulted.

"Odd, although I haven't lived on Earth _all_ my life, I_do_ know for a fact that you should _never_ take something off of a girl that she clearly wants to keep away," Aelita explained this valuable information on the female kind in the same way Jeremy would explain the technical side of Lyoko.

"Yeah Odd," Jeremy agreed with a nod, "you could see how Yumi clung on to that book."

"Jeremy's right Odd it _was_ obvious that Yumi didn't want anyone to see that book," Ulrich agreed also nodding his head.

"But…" Odd started before being interrupted by Ulrich who grabbed the purple clad boys arm and began to drag him from the bench they'd been sat at.

"C'mon Odd lets just get to class," the brunette said, though he was worried about Yumi, Ulrich kept trying to convince himself that she was just sad about being back at school and having to deal with XANA.


	3. The Diary

Chapter 3 is ready for your reading pleasure :D

* * *

**The diary reveals more than expected  
**Chapter 3

**(No ones POV)  
**After this mornings little event, the rest of the day had passed by rather quickly, and apart from Odd getting yelled at by Miss Hertz for falling asleep in class for what was probably the twentieth time in a week; pretty smoothly as well.

Even so, when the end of the day had finally rolled by, Ulrich couldn't have been happier to be back in his room. All day his mind had been on Yumi and her strange actions and now Ulrich was sat on his bed, reading a magazine, in the hopes of taking his mind off of her.  
He's been minding his own business, the thoughts almost gone from his head, when the screaming music of Odd's MP3 stopped.

"Hey, Ulrich," Odd said, quiet ecclesiastically, getting the other boys attention "guess what I've got?"

"I dunno," Ulrich sighed, not interested in the slightest, "what is it Odd?"

Odd sighed in frustration, as he grew more and more impatient, "why don't you stop reading that magazine, get off your lazy ass and come over here and see?"

Far from being bothered to actually get up and see what it was Odd had, Ulrich just put his magazine down and squinted his eyes a little and when he realised what it was, well…lets just say, that Ulrich was _far_ from happy.  
"Holy crap Odd! You...you _idiot_," he shouted, swinging his arms up in a grandiose gesture, "do you have a death wish or something, because you're not gonna be here for much longer when Yumi finds out what you've done...I mean devirtualising her from Lyoko is one thing, but _stealing _the diary that she was so protective over earlier today!?"

"Geez, Ulrich, I was _only _curious, I mean like you said, this _is _the book that I tried to steal this morning and I _really, really, REALLY _wanted to know what it was," Odd pleaded getting onto his hands and knees in a fake gesture of asking for forgiveness.

"Odd," Ulrich dead panned ignoring the by at his feet, "Yumi hasn't let that book out of her sightall day; how the _hell_ did you get it?"

"She didn't have her eye on it when she was doing phys ed," Odd answered jumping back onto his bed with a smirk.

Ulrich, contemplated his response to this, he could:  
to conclusion, totally freak out and call Odd a huge string of words that would easily get him expelled if someone like Jim heard him.  
Or, 2. Calmly ask Odd what he meant by he previous statement.  
Ulrich decided on _calmly _attempting option.

"…. Odd you total_…PERVERT!_" Ulrich had completely thrown out the idea of being calm, " I can't believe that you _actually_ went into the girls locker room!" he sighed running his hand through his hair, "look, I knew you were curious about Yumi's diary, but this is just _too _far...geeze, I mean talk about curiosity killed the cat."

"ULRICH, I did _not_ go into the girl's locker room, and even if I did, I would've waited for them all to leave," explained Odd like it was obvious, "I asked Angelic if when she was getting changed, she could get Yumis' book."

"…and she said yes?" Ulrich asked incredulously, "no questions asked?"

"No, obviously I had to pay her, this is Aneglic, not only does she not do anything without getting something, she still hates my guts for going out with her at the same time as Leila," Odd shook his head mumbling something about an overreaction, "anyway, I'm gonna start reading this book, wanna have a look?"

"No Odd," Ulrich answered, "unlike you, I respect people's privacy."

"Fine," Odd sighed, "it's probably just full of '_I love Ulrich_' anyway."

"Not listening Odd," he shouted returning to his magazine.

"Whatever," Odd said dismissing Ulrich as he began to read the diary; he skipped to where Yumi had written in the diary about her holiday in Japan and continued reading. After reading the first few days of week one, he got bored, it being nothing more than Yumi talking about meeting family and being worried about what's going on on Lyoko while she's gone. So, he skipped a few pages, the movement of the paper causing a small draft to brush across Odd's cheeks; the pages stopped on day four of week two; a Thursday; his amber eyes grew wider and wider the further he read.  
"Uh…U-Ulrich," he stuttered trying to get the other's attention.

"Odd I told you, I'm _not_ reading that diary," Ulrich sighed, frustrated.

"Seriously Ulrich, you have to see this," Odd said, more urgently this time.

"NO, Odd, I'm not coming over there just to look a forgery of Yumi writing that she loves me," Ulrich spoke, his voice slightly louder than before.

"Ulrich, I'm insulted that you'd actually think that I would forge something about how someone _actually_ feels and also, you _really _have to come and see this, I think it might have something to do with XANA, I mean it won't seem like it at first, but, it will a bit further down" Odd pleaded, genuine worry in his voice.

"Fine Odd," Ulrich sighed, before adding, "if this is one of your tricks Odd, you're dead," he walked over to Odd's bed and sat down"so, what am I looking at?"

"From the beginning of Thursday 14th to the end of Thursday 14th," Odd instructed pointing to the page.

Ulrich nodded and began reading, Odd glancing at the page from over his shoulder. 

_(the diary)_  
Dear diary,  
Today was my penultimate day in Japan, and it was…well …really strange to be honest. Anyway, I brought everyone's presents today, three of them were simple, pink for Aeliat, tech for Jeremy and anything edible for Odd...but Ulrich, well I don't know, nothing really seemed right, it was too big or too small, or too much of one colour, or something stupid, but no matter how hard I looked, nothing seemed right.  
Things got even worse when I went to this fortune teller, an old friend had recommended it to me; she said that they had a fortune teller and someone who wrote down what the fortune teller said in fancy writing. Fortunes and that sort of stuff aren't really my thing, but I decided to go to it anyway, since my parents had dragged Hiroki to my aunts, and although I love my aunt, I was getting really bored of doing nothing but seeing family and I just wanted to get out for a bit.

So, I went to this fortune teller, and instead of writing down what she said, I've decided to just attach the piece of paper to this entry.  
_You seem very distant and distracted. I can see that you have many secrets in your life, but, there's one big one, one that only you and a few others know. You do so much, yet with no recognition, but, this is not why you or distant or distracted is it?  
I can see the reason; I see two young men, one small but very brave and is willing to do anything for you, and one that is not exactly himself, almost possessed, he too does admire you, but he cannot show it.  
It is very clear that a battle between these two is coming, but, not only for your heart, it'll be a battle of light versus dark, good versus evil… a samurai versus his ultimate enemy._

Ulrich stopped dead when he read the fortune, "no," he said to himself, "this has gotta be a joke or something I mean..." he had no explanation.

Ulrich looked down at Odd and saw that the other had fallen asleep, so he returned to his own bed and continued reading in silence,

_(the diary)_

After this happened...I really didn't know what to do, so I gave them some money, got up and just left. Well, I suppose one good thing came out of this, after that, I knew what to get Ulrich. Unlike the others, I wanted to get Ulrich something special; maybe it was because of that fortune; so I went to a shop, and bought him a really expensive samurai sword, but, so he doesn't feel spoiled when I give it to him, I'll probably just say it's from a garage sale or something. Well, I guess that's it for this entry. I dunno what I'm gonna do next time we have to go to Lyoko. For the next five minuets Ulrich, cautiously turned to the next page, curious as to whether or not Yumi had mentioned the fortune teller again and sure enough the first sentences written on the entry for Friday 15th were:  
"I can't stop thinking about what the fortune teller had said...she seemed so focused when telling my fortune, almost possessed. I need to ask those guys if there was an attack while I was gone, hopefully there was, then I can forget about all of this."

Ulrich just stared blankly at the book in front of him, his eyes not really focusing on anything... "but Jeremy said that there wasn't an attack," he whispered in disbelief before shaking his head back into reality.  
When he saw the time on the clock on his desk, Ulrich decided it was best to attempt to get some sleep and so he did. Placing the book beneath his bed and laying down onto the soft pillow, Ulrich felling into a light, restless slumber.


	4. Irrational decisions

Chapter 4 has now been fixed and is ready to be read again.

* * *

**A distressed soul can make irrational decisions.**  
Chapter 4.

**(Ulrichs POV)**

When I opened my eyes I expected to see my room, illuminated by the sun, with Odd still sleeping at the other side of it, instead my eyes were met with the dessert sector in Lyoko and instead of wearing the clothes I'd gone to sleep in, I was in my Lyoko outfit.

"_Ulrich, everyone's been_ _devirtualised, you need to head to the tower north of you." _

My practically stopped when I heard Jeremys voice crackle over the intercom, "uhh…got it Jeremy," I answered steadying myself from the initial shock.

This is weird, why has everyone been devirtualised? If that's the case then why didn't Jeremy sound very upset, I mean Aelita wouldn't be able to deactivate the tower if she'd been devirtualised, but I guess Jeremy didn't say anything about a tower.  
I started to supersprint in the direction Jeremy had told me to and I wasn't at all surprised at what I saw when I got there. It was William with three flying mantas, one of which he was stood on.

"William, William, William. You just don't know when to quit do you?" I said, shaking my head as I drew my swords and supersprinted towards him.

"She's mine!" he shouted, voice mechanical as ever as he shot me with an energy bolt, which sent me flying back. Man that _really _hurt.

"Everyone's been devirtualised," I shouted back at him regaining my balance and questioning his statement of 'she's mine.'

"Not everyone," he smirked as Yumi was seemingly slung out of a tower causing her to crash against a rock and lay there unconscious. Yumi! No, it can't be, Jer said that everyone's been devirtualised...

"Jeremy, you said that everyone had been devirtualised?" I yelled running towards her, only to be stopped by Williams sword.

"_I…Ul…XAN…bug..." _Jeremy's voice crackled and was soon taken over by static that eventually faded into silence.

"Huh, what, Jeremy I can't hear you," my voice run gout through the static as I ducked under William's sword and continued running.

"Sorry that line has been disconnected," William laughed as he lunged at me with his sword, "she's mine!"

Only, just dodging the blow, I turned around and my swords met William's. That was too close for comfort.  
'She's mine.' Why does he keep saying that? He means Yumi, I know that much but wait…Yumi's diary, no…this has gotta be that fight, but could a forunte like that really be right? I mean it's just some nonsense that a fortune teller blurted out, right? There's no way it could be true. Nonetheless, I did all I could to try and devirtualise William; I kept telling myself it was because I wanted to get Yumi to safety and not because I was still worried about the diary. No matter how many times my katanas struck him, William didn't die, and I was starting to get tired and my life points were getting lower.  
Suddenly I heard a groan from behind me; I turned and saw Yumi rubbing the back of her head, she was awake, thank goodness, that means she's ok.

"Urrgh, what happened?" she groaned as she looked up, her eyes grew wider; in shock or horror I don't know; when she saw what was happening. Almost instantly, she curled up into a ball and started incoherently whispering to herself and, if we had been on earth, I knew that she would've she started to cry. This isn't like Yumi at all, I'm worried, why is she being like this, what the fortune teller said couldn't have effected her so badly that she's acting like this.

William quickly took advantage of me being distracted and knocked me onto my back, his sword missing my face by mere inches as I rolled to the side to dodge it, "Yumi," I tried to comfort her, but, William kept trying to hit me, "It's…O…K." I dodged more blows.

"She's mine!" William shouted again, swinging his sword. I wish he'd stop saying that.

"She's NOT!" I yelled back equally as loud, getting to my feet and lunging at William, "Yumi doesn't belong to anyone, no one _belongs _someone," I smirked an idea jumping into my head, "except you William, you belong to XANA, you're just his puppet, a tool to try and get to us but it doesn't work."

William screamed in anger, this was going well. I drew my swords back, ready to try and get rid of William again when one his little pets shot me in the back. I forgot about the mantas.  
I doubled over in pain and I wondered why I hadn't been devirtualised by that, but I didn't have long to think as William pushed his sword right into my back, now that would definitely devirtualise me.

I groaned in pain as my body began to dissapear into nothing but pixels but, just before I had faded away completely, I saw William grab Yumi by her waist and disappear into a cloud of black smoke.

"Yumi!" I shouted as I shot up, panting heavily "huh, what?" I was in my dorm room, in bed, in my pyjamas...what; I looked around to see Odd staring at me like I had something on my face.

"So I'm guessing you read the diary," Odd said tilting his head towards the book under my bed.

"What, you're not gonna make some joke about me shouting Yumi?" I asked, almost shocked at the fact that he hadn't taken the opportunity to do so.

Odd just shook his head, arms folded.

"So, why are you being so quiet?" I continued when he didn't say anything else.

"I can be serious when I want to ya know," Odd protested, "and besides, I know that you were dreaming about the diary, so I can't really make fun of you."

I nodded, it was a fair point, I guess, "well, I'm gonna go and take a shower, and if you don't wanna have everyone avoiding you, I suggest you do too."

Odd nodded in agreement and we both got everything we needed and headed towards the showers, thankfully there wasn't a line today, but, when we got to the showers we were met by another unpleasant surprise.

"XANA attack," was all Jeremy said when we saw him.

"What!" Odd shouted starting to freak out, I could tell it was because of the diary, I just punched him in the arm and gave him a look that simply said, Jeremy-doesn't-know-yet-dumbass. He just smiled nervously and nodded…he's such an idiot.

"Whatever," Jeremy sighed ignoring Odd's outburst, "look, you two need to get dressed and head towards the factory, Yumi and Aelita will be waiting for you on Lyoko."

We nodded, hoping that we'd have time to shower when we got back and started to run back to our dorm room, that is until...

"STERN! DELLA-ROBIA!" I heard the call of Jim from down the hall, "now what could possibly be so important that you two are breaking school rules and _running down the hall_!"

"Errr…nothing interesting Jim, it's just that…uhh…Odd forgot his shower gel, and since it's cold out here we wanted to get there and back quickly," I always was good at lying on the spot…well…to most people.

"Fine," he grunted walking away, obviously disappointed at the fact that he couldn't punish us.

"Wow! That was close," Odd panted sliding down our room door and catching his breath.

"Yeah, no help from you," I said starting to put my clothes on, "hurry up!"

"Sooo what are you gonna do on Lyoko?" Odd asked as we ran through the forest towards the manhole.

"I have no idea," I sighed jumping onto my skateboard, making sure to keep my balance, "maybe this time isn't it, I mean we don't know for sure, it could be today…next week…who knows?"

"You keep telling yourself that Ulrich old buddy," Odd shouted speeding off into the distance of the sewers.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I yelled catching up with him.

"Nothing," he shrugged and I rolled my eyes, "ok, it's just that, we find out about this whole…fortune thing and then there's a XANA attack..." he moved his hands in a gesture that almost made him fall off his skateboard, "it just seems a bit more than a coincidence to me."

"XANA's not going to know about what happened while Yumi was away," I stated, even though I knew it was possible that though the use of the network XANA could access different areas of the world.

"XANA could've used the network to access Japan and then Yumi," Odd said, voicing my thoughts.  
"But he could only do that if a tower was activated," I countered, "and there wasn't an activated tower while Yumi was away."

"What if the super scan didn't pick it up..." Odd trailed off as other ideas and possibilities floated into his mind, "or XANA activated a tower in a new sector we don't know about yet...what if there's a new sector Ulrich! That would be so awesome, a new place to explore, I wonder what it would look like..."  
I rolled my eyes as Odd went off on his tangent and began to climb up the ladder to the factory. Neither of us said a lot while we were going down to the lab and into the scanners, Odd still fantasising about a new sector and I was just worried about being on Lyoko after what I read last night, and that dream.

**TRANSFERE**

**SCANNER**

**VIRTUALISATION**

After being virtualised into the digital world, we saw Aelita and Yumi, already there waiting for us, just like Jeremy had said.

"Hi," Aelita waved at us smiling.

"Hey guys, what took you so long," Yumi asked, considering what could possibly happen, she seemed calm...actually she's probably just hiding it because she thinks that we don't know or she isn't bothered about it any more or...

"Are you ok," I asked; well done Ulrich, that was probably one of the _worst _things you could've said; I bet she thinks I'm acting weird now.

"Fine," she shrugged, hopefully ignoring the irrelevance of my question; it wouldn't have been as bad if I'd asked both of them, but I just directed the question at Yumi.

"Alright guys, tea party's over, "Jeremy said through the computer, "I want you to head south."

We nodded and hoped on our already virutalised vehicles before speeding off in the direction of the tower.

When we got to there, which didn't take as long as I'd thought, we were greeted by three krabs, nothing new and thankfully there was no William…yet.

"Alright, let's get this party started!" Odd yelled, shooting a few lazer arrows and hitting a krab, "YES! One down err…1, 2...3to go."

Not wanting to leave all the fun to Odd, I drew my sword and lunged at the nearest krab, destroying it with ease. I think XANA's loosing his touch.

Since all of us were on Lyoko, it didn't take long before we had wiped out all the krabs along with some blocks that had been sent afterwords.

"Well," Odd yawned whilst stretching, "guess all that's left to do is deactivate the tower. It's your time to shine princess," and he gestured for Aelita to go to the tower.

But, no sooner had Odd said this, William appeared directly behind him and impaled him with his sword, devirtualising him instantly. I just stared at the empty spot where my friend had once stood, I knew that he was safely back on earth but now William's here…I can't do this fight now…_please_. Sadly _he _had otrher ideas and I was forced to I draw my sword when I saw him running towards me.

Within seconds our swords were crashed together, sparks flying everywhere and all either of us could do was add more power. Never before had I had a fight with this much power on Lyoko, no matter how monsters XANA may send, I don't think anything could compare to this.

With both of our energy failing, we each pulled away, our shoulders rising and falling heavily as we tried to catch our breath and regain some strength. Neither of us were willing to loose this fight, that was obvious.

Then I remembered, Yumi! She's still her on Lyoko and we're fighting in front of her, I looked over to see Yumi…she had both her fans out. Why? There are no monsters, just William, she doesn't have anything to set her fans on. Then she did something reckless, even through theses circumstances.

She mouthed an 'I'm sorry' before flinging both her fans, one swinging around and devirtualising her, I'd lost sight of the other one, but I soon felt it, as it swung around a sliced through me just as it would to one of XANA's monsters. I heard Aelita scream and I realised that William had used this opportunity to supersmoke away from me and devirtualise her. Everything went black. The tower was still activated.

I groaned as I almost fell out of the scanner, I hated coming back to earth from Lyoko; you're bombarded by your senses as they all come back to you, attacking your body and then there's getting used to the fact that the gravity on Earth is strong and therefore you can't do nearlya s much as you can when you're in virtual form.

Slowly and slightly shakily, I stepped out of the scanner and headed up to the lab, but when I got there I almost wished that I'd been left on Lyoko to battle William. Yumi was stood there, arms crossed over chest and the angered yells of Jeremy filled the room, clearly he wasn't happy about Aelita being divirtualised.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!" he yelled throwing his arms up to emphasise his point, "now Aelita's been devirtualised and the tower is _still_activated, we have no ideaabout what that could do, for all we know it could bring the end of the word…we are in a possible end. of. the. _World_situation here, and what do you go and do, you devirtualiseboth yourself and Ulrich!" in this time, Aelita had also come from the scanner room and to the lab, slightly shaken from being devirtualised so abruptly, being taken completely by surprise.

"Hey…hey, Jeremy, maybe you should give Yumi a chance to speak, I'm sure she has a rational explanation for all this," Odd said referencing to the diary and hoping that Yumi might just tell us so we could avoid the situation that was obviously going to come.

Jeremy turned to Yumi with a look that could kill; he really was angry; his eyes daring her to come up with this 'reasonable explanation' that Odd was talking about. Maybe I should says something, but, seeing how she reacted on Lyoko I don't know if Yumi would ever forgive me for reading her diary.

Yumi just sighed in annoyance, "I don't have to explain myself to anyone," she wasn't going to say it was she? "if I do something, there's always a reason, but, after what just happened now, I don't see why I should explain myself to someone who taking complete control over something _we_decided would be controlled by the group!"

With that said Yumi walked towards the elevator, she stepped into the empty space and turned around. Just as the doors were about to close Jeremy shouted, "I want a reasonable explanation by the end of the day, or else you're out," Yumi had no time to comment before the doors had closed.

"Jeremy," Aelita; who'd had the unfortunate experience of appearing back on earth during Jeremy's rant; whispered, "don't you think that's a bit harsh? I mean, are you really going to do that?" the worry was apparent in her voice, Yumi was the only female friend she had, I guess she didn't want to loose her.

Aelita's worry seemed to soften Jeremy as his angry demeanour seemed to subside and he sighed, "no, I just, I guess I was just worried about you Aelita, I did go too far there," he paused, "but I'd still like to know why she did that to herself and Ulrich," he turned to me and Odd as if asking for our thoughts on this.

We both shrugged,, knowing it probably wasn't our place to speak about the reason why Yumi had done it, even if it did have something to do with XANA.


	5. Changes

I bring you chapter 5, all done.

* * *

**Can changes bring out the truth?  
**Chapter 5

**(No ones POV)**

When Yumi had woken up that morning, she'd felt far worse than what she did when she'd gone to bed. After trudging home from the long day of school that had followed the events at the factory, she spent the rest of the evening hearing her mum and dad fighting over the same things that they always did and when Yumi had finally laid down in her bed, she'd spent most of the night tossing and turning over what Jeremy had said to her.  
She blinked in shock when she laid eyes on her clock, 6:20am, she couldn't remember the last time she woke up that early on a school day. Still, she knew there was no point in going back into that restless sleep, so with a sigh, Yumi heaved herself out of bed and headed for the shower.

'_What am I going to do?' _She thought to herself, stepping under the running water of the shower, _'I could make up something, but by the time I've made up a decent excuse, it would've been easier to just tell the truth...'_

The girl was at a loss, she didn't have another friend to talk to, all of the friends she had had something to do with lyoko, and theywere the ones she was trying to lie to.

Wrapped in a towel, and shivering surprisingly less than she anticipated, Yumi walked back to her still dark room and made her way over to her wardrobe. Staring into the cavern of clothes in front of her, Yumi sighed, she couldn't deny it, she wanted change, something new, at that moment everything felt like it was getting old. Reaching past her usual attire and into the darkness, Yumi grabbed a handful of different items and dropped them onto her bed in a pile of jumpers, shirts, trousers and more.

After what felt like a few hours, but was only 20 minutes, of swapping and changing, trying all the combinations that popped into her head, Yumi finally decided on the new clothes she was going to wear. A pair of faded black skinny jeans with a scruffier, more 'worn' look about them than her previous ones hugged her legs, ripped denim and frays of material decorating the jeans. For a shirt she wore the exact same as what she had on a mission that felt like it was oh so long ago. When XANA had possessed Millie's teddy bear and the dance had been all but ruined. A red necklace hugged her neck and an equally as red belt hung on her hips with the top of the jeans, both accessories ready to match the dark red boots that she'd slip onto her feet before leaving the house that morning.

Speaking of leaving, Yumi glanced at her clock and saw the time, 7:10am. The time had passed quicker than she'd realised, so she ran downstairs, to see that her father had a;ready left for work and her mother was talking to her brother.

"Morning," Yumi yawned, trying to look like she'd just gotten up and that she hadn't spent the past eight hours tossing and turning her sheets before getting up at an unusually early time.

"I know that you've been up longer than this dear," her mother said without a change in expression as she turned from Hiroki and turned on the tap to do the dishes.

"Well there was no point in me going back to sleep, since I probably would've slept in," Yumi said sitting down, not bothering to explain any more than she felt necessary.

Her mum just shook her head and turned back to the sink that was now full off hot water, bubbles threatening to flood over the edge, "didn't you say that you wanted to be at school a bit earlier today, I think it was something about your friends."

"Ha ha, I bet she's going to meet _Ulrich_," Hiroki laughed not even bothering to look up from his video game as he made the same joke he always made about the brown haired boy and his sister.

"Shut up Hiroki," Yumi shot the response at her brother as she glared down at him; Ulrich was the last person she'd want to talk to when it came to what had happened; and what might happen; on Lyoko.

Shaking her head at her brother and her thoughts, Yumi put on her bag, grabbed something edible from the table top and began her walk to school to school. She knew this was going to be a long day.

When Yumi walked through the gates of the school and across the grounds, she couldn't help but notice all of the people staring at her, it was obvious that it was because of her change in attire, but the guilty part of her subconscious; the patr that refused to stop thinking about Lyoko and that fortune; made her feel like they were staring at her because of what happened on the virtual world.

Kepping her head down and focusing her eyes on her feet, Yumi continued her journey towards the class she was supposed to be at, _'I almost wish I didn't bother to change now.'_

"Hey Yumi," an all too familiar voice called from behind her. She just walked faster.

"Hey Yumi," Ulrich called again matching her speed, "hey, I know that you're annoyed at Jeremy, but that's no reason to completely forget the rest of us."

"Whatever," Yumi said speeding up yet again.

"No," Ulrich answered, "not _whatever_, Jeremy said that if you want to tell us, you can meet us in his room after school."

"Tell Jeremy that I have no interest in telling you anything," Yumi replied, her speed increasing still as her need to get away from her friend became stronger.

"What is your problem?!" Ulrich asked, getting frustrated, "if you want to, you don't have to tell all of us, you can just tell one of us if you want, we just want to know that you're ok."

"Yeah well, what if I don't want to tell _any_ of you?" Yumi countered the boys attempt at reaoning.

"…but…why?" Ulrich shouted, "what could possibly be _that _bad about us that you can't bring your self to talk to any of us? We're your friends Yumi, we're here for you to talk to, we're here to help you, not just sit back and watch as you battle something that we can't help you with because we don't know about it."

"Jeremy will say I'm lying; Odd will make some stupid joke; Aelita won't really understand…and you…" Yumi stopped, but didn't turn to face the brunette, "…you'll just ask too many questions," and then Yumi ran away again, long before anyone had the chance to reply.

With any worry he had now replaced with irritation towards the stubborn girl, Ulrich turned back to his other three friends.

"Any luck?" Jeremy asked, though from what they'd just seen the answer was obvious.

"What do you think?" Ulrich replied, "but I didn't expect to, she's stubborn, she said that she won't come, but knowing her something will change her mind," by now Ulrich was staring aimlessly at the doors Yumi had just ran through.

"Hey Ulrich," Odd called to the seemingly entranced boy.

"Odd you better not make a joke," Aelita warned.

"Actually, I was just gonna warn him that Sissy was coming," Odd said pointing at the annoying black haired girl sauntering towards them.

"Sissy I really don't want to hear your voice right now, so could you please just piss off," Ulrich said bluntly not removing his eyes from the doors.

Said girl opened her mouth to protest, but changed her mind upon seeing the cold glare from Odd. She simply walked away, leaving the group in a cold silence.

~X~X~X~

Yumi had spent most of the day in a trance like state, only coming out when she was called in class, which was usually to be told off for not paying attention and zoning out. Finally, after endless warnings and a million annoyed sighs, the bell rang and school was over, but now another challenge faced Yumi when she left her classroom.

Sighing yet again, Yumi slouched against the wall outside her classroom, _'it's now or never,'_ she thought to herself staring into thin air, _'if I don't go now, then I can kiss Lyoko goodbye…but then again, if I quit, I'll have more time to study, my dad wont shout at me if I'm in late, and I'll just have more time to do things I want to do, but, the thing I want to do is fight XANA on Lyoko…'_

Yumi put her head in her hands, this was a lot harder than she thought, but she knew that if she didn't go _now_, there'd be no point in trying later. Stood there in silence, engrossed in her own thoughts, Yumi didn't notice her phone begin to vibrate and she jumped when the sounds of her ring tone drifted to her ears.

"Hello?" she asked almost harshly, unhappy that she'd been disturbed.

"Hi Yumi," Ulrich answered on the other end, either ignoring or not noticing the harshness in her voice.

"Look Ulrich," Yumi sighed when she knew it was him, "I'm guessing that you're probably in Jeremy's room and you wanna know if I'm coming?"

"Actually I'm stood outside the science block…in the rain," his reply had caught Yumi off guard and she looked down the corridor and through the glass doors to see the silhouette of a drenched boy, "oh," was all she could say before she started walking towards the doors.

Hanging up the phone, Ulrich looked up to see Yumi coming towards him, her hood up and a black rain coat in her hand.

"Here," she said coming out of the building and handing him the coat, "where are the others?"

"They're in Jeremy's room, I told them that I left my pencil case in our geography classroom," Ulrich answered slipping the coat on.

"But your geography classroom is at the other end of the school," she questioned.

Ulrich shrugged knowing that the other's had probably seen right through his lie like Yumi had, "err…I don't know about you, but I wouldn't really want to walk home in this weather, and the dorms are just a quick sprint across the courtyard…so…"

Yumi, "I guess it wouldn't hurt to be a bit late," she smiled, "…RACE YA!"

With that the girl started to sprint off, quickly followed by Ulrich who was shocked by her outburst, but regained composure in time to catch up with her and not loose too terribly.

The two of them panted when they got through the doors of the dorms, water dripping from their clothes and forming small puddles on the ground beneath them.

"I…win," Yumi said still catching her breath.

"No…way…you started…before me," Ulrich whined.

Yumi smiled. Despite the fact that it was raining outside, her life could possibly be ruined, and she might have to read part of her diary to her friends, she was enjoying herself.

"So, where to now?" Yumi asked after regaining composure.

"Erm…well, mine and Odds room looks like a bomb went off in it, so…Jeremys room," Ulrich suggested and began to walk up the stairs.

Yumi's face dropped, "I knew it," she muttered, "Jeremy told you to do this so you'd get me to tell you, well it won't work."

"Yumi, I swear, Jeremy had nothing to do with this, neither did Aelita and Odd," Ulrich pleaded, instantly regretting suggesting Jeremy's room, "I wanted to talk to you before you either tell us or leave."

"Whatever," Yumi sighed ignoring his excuse, "look, I gotta go, and I want my coat back tomorrow."

Yumi began to walk out of the large double doors, the rain masking the tears that had began to fall; tears that had been threatening to fall for so long. She was half way across the soaked and puddle filled courtyard, when Ulrich shouted at her.

"I know," his voice struck Yumi's ears and she froze not turning around, "Odd stole your diary and I told him not to read it, but he did, and then he made me read the part about the fortune telling since he thought it might have something to do with XANA," Ulrich was now rambling like a small child describing something to his mother.

"I want my diary back," Yumi mumbled, not eve bothering to respond to the boys rambles.

"What?" Ulrich asked.

"I want my diary back!" Yumi shouted finally turning around.

Even through the rain, Ulrich instantly recognised the tears staining her cheeks, to him they stood out from the rain like a neon sign. He took a small black book out of his bag and handed it to her.

"I don't why you won't tell us," he mumbled as her fingers brushed over his in the small moment when she grabbed the book and snatched it back into her possession, "if it bothers you that much..."

Before he could even finish, Ulrich realised that he was now stood alone in the rain covered courtyard, watching the one person he didn't want to ever make upset, running away with tears in her eyes.


	6. Tricked

Chapter 6, check!

* * *

**Tricked and taken.  
**Chapter 6

Minutes passed and he stood there, uncaring as the rain continued to fall on him. His hair had already been flattened and strands clung to his cheeks as he stared off into the blank space where Yumi was once stood.

It didn't take long before he clenched his fists in anger,_ 'I can't believe I was such an idiot,'_ the thought raged in his head, _'I knew that Yumi was still a bit sensitive about this and what do I go and do, I ask her to come to Jeremy's room,' _Ulrich looked down blaming himself, _'it's all my fault…it's all my fault…it's…' _but no matter how many times he told himself that, Ulrich still felt that small part of him being angry at _her_.

"It's not my fault," he whispered now voicing his opinion to the empty space in front of him, "I was trying to be a good friend by not making her come to mine and Odds room since it's such a mess, and all she does to repay me is run off," his anger now shifted from himself to the person who was no longer there, Ulrich pivoted on his heel and stormed up to Jeremy's room, uncaring that Yumi could be lost in the process.

"Hey Ulrich," Odd greeted as he walked through the room, dripping rainwater onto the carpet, "I know our classroom's on the other side of the school, but what took you so long?"

"…and is Yumi coming," Aelita added softly.

Ulrich just shook his head and sat down next to Odd on Jeremy's bed, reclining against the wall with a frustrated sigh.

"So I guess that's it," Jeremy sighed ignoring the fact that he'd have to change his sheets later if he wanted to sleep on a dry bed, "I didn't want to do this…but…Yumi's out."

Two of the rooms occupants gasped in shock at Jeremy's decision to actually go through with this whilst the fourth person remained emotionless, his eyes never moving from the wall opposite him.

"What?!" Aelita shouted standing up from where she'd been sat on the floor leaning on Jeremy's bed, "but Jeremy, you said you wouldn't do it!"

"Aelita's right!" Odd yelled as he joined the girl in standing, the two glaring at the computer genius, "you can't kick her out just because she won't tell us something...I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for this..." his voice trailed off as he considered bringing up the diary, was keeping this secret really worth loosing Yumi?

Aelita nodded at Odd's comment, "you know he's right Jeremy," her voice was softer than it was before, "Yumi wouldn't do something like that unless it was really worrying her," she placed a hand on Jeremy's shoulder, "please don't do this Jeremy."  
He shook his head, "like I said, I don't want to do this, but if she refuses to tell us what else are we supposed to do?" no one answered, "what's to say that she won't do this again, if this problem is going to affect how she fights on Lyoko, then wouldn't it be safer for all of us; herself, us, the world; if she doesn't go there any more?"

The room stayed silent as everyone thought about what Jeremy had said. He was right, they couldn't force her to tell them and whatever it was that was bothering her was clearly affecting her ability to fight; it was the safest thing to do, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt to accept that truth.

"Wait," Odd shouted even though no one was in a rush to do anything, "Ulrich, what about the…ya know..." he looked to the boy who'd remained silent and still through the previous uproar.

"Don't have it," he answered bluntly, not bothering to look towards Odd.

"…b-but…" Odd wasn't sure what to do now, his only way of trying to help the situation had disappeared and the only person he thought would be overly concerned, didn't give a shit.

* * *

The second Yumi had reached her home, she felt almost instant relief; to be out of the rain, away from the school, away from them. Free to shut herself away and forget about what's been happening. Completely disregarding the time and the fact that she had ran past and ignored her whole family, Yumi shot straight up to her room, wanting nothing more than to forget about everything.

Different emotions bombarded her senses as she lay staring at the ceiling above her. Anger pooled in her mind; anger towards herself, towards everyone else. She felt torn, the ideas of what she should do waging war through her consciousness. Yet it was the feeling of betrayal that shot up from the cacophony within her head, standing like an obnoxious neon sign above the battling emotions.

For a brief moment, the worries that had been weighing on her life had gone, deisappeared. She didn't care about her diary; the fact that people were mad at her; the impending battle that was to come…and that was all taken away in one sentence. A few words. Said by the only person in the world she thought might just understand, the only one that she thought, that maybe, just maybe, he could help her.

Minutes melded into hours as Yumi laid there on her bed, ignoring her surroundings, she'd stopped crying some time ago now, the tears refusing to fall anymore. Instead her eyes stared aimlessly to the ceiling. Like most rooms, the blank expanse of the ceiling wasn't the most entertaining of things, but, Yumi didn't care, all the _entertainment _was in her head. The warring emotions still floating around her head, regardless of the fact that the tears that portrayed them had ended long ago.

She sighed when she heard a knock on her door, "I don't wanna talk," her eyes drifted lazily to the door as though she could see the person on the other side.

"I understand dear," her mother called, "it's just that…there's a boy at the door for you, and he said he wouldn't go until I at least told you about him."

Yumi just closed her eyes in frustration, knowing exactly who it was going to be, "it doesn't matter, you can just tell _Ulrich _that I'm not bothered."

"I don't think that this is Ulrich, dear," Yumi's mother started, "he was about the same height as you, and he had black hair, and from what little you've told me, Ulrich's short with brown hair..." her voice trailed off as she finished the sentence.

When Yumi had heard the description of the boy that was waiting for her, she shot up form her lying position on the bed, shocked wide eyes gazing at the door, "oh...I-I'll be down in a minute," she said cautiously wondering if her mother had even heard her.

Taking a deep and shaky breath, Yumi clasped her hand around the door handle to the front door, almost hoping that person on the other side wasn't who she thought it would be.

"I'm gonna go out ok mum," Yumi called to her mother, deciding that it was best to take some time with the possible situation that faced her outside the door.

"Ok dear," she replied, "just take your phone and don't be back too late."

Shouting a quick "ok," Yumi opened the door, only to be faced with someone she thought was gone.

"…William?" she asked, disbelief evident in her voice.

And sure enough, the tall dark haired boy turned around and answered with a mere smile.

Yumi closed the door behind her before continuing, "what the hell are you doing here," she asked hastily, confusing being rewritten with panic as she considered the possibility of this being one of XANA's plans.

"I don't really know," he shrugged, "I mean one minute all I can hear in my head is XANA, and the next I'm in the scanner room, I just put it down to you guys coming up with something."

Sceptical as to whether or not he was telling the truth, Yumi just narrowed her eyes at the boy in front of her, "do the others know about this?"

William shook his head, "no, no-one was at the factory when I came back, so I decided to tell you that I was back."

Yumi just looked down 'typical William' she thought, "and you didn't think it strange that no one was there?" he shook his head, "then I think we should go and tell them," she began making her way to the gate of the house.

"No," William said quickly, putting a hand on one of the bars to stop her, "…I have something for you," he mumbled rustling through his pockets, "damn it must've dropped out of my pocket at the factory."

"William," Yumi stated not interested in what it was he coul give to her after being stuck on Lyoko, "we need to tell the others that you're back."

"I know," he sighed, "but, I was gonna give it to you before I got called to lyoko…and…well could you _please _come with me to get it," he sent her a pleading look.

Yumi hung her head in defeat, "fine, but as soon as you've given it to me, we go and tell the others," she couldn't tell if she was being nice to him by letting him do this, or if she just wanted to avoid her friends.

William nodded and started to run towards the factory and Yumi followed, albeit begrudgingly behind him.

William smiled at her before going down the elevator to the scanner room.

"I think it fell out of my pocket when I fell out of the scanner," he explained as he started to look for the lost gift and Yumi nodded joining his search.

After a few minutes of searching, Yumi noticed that William had stopped, "are you ok," she asked standing up.

"No," he said shakily, "I think that it might've fallen out of my pocket…_in_ the scanner…Yumi, I don't wanna seem like a wimp or anything, but do you think that you could get it for me," he sighed, "I don't mean this in a bad way, but, it's just that I'm kinda scared going anywhere even close to XANA or lyoko after what's happened."

Yumi gave an understanding and sympathetic smile and she didn't protest, because she knew that she couldn't even begin to understand how it must've felt t be possessed by XANA.

Putting one foot into the scanner she moved her head around slightly to see if she could see it. The light in the scanner itself wasn't the best, but, Yumi could clearly see that nothing was in there besides herself.

"William," she started as she began to step out of the scanner, "are you sure that it fell out of your pocket in the scanner room, maybe it fell out on your way to my house…"

"It's definitely there," William said, but his voice sounded different, a difference that didn't go unnoticed as Yumi spun round, still half in the scanner, to say something about the change.

Her attempt at speaking was cut short when she was forcibly pressed against the small wall of the scanner. Shocked eyes shakily looked up to see William; a devilish smirk on his face as XANA's symbol flickered in his eyes; pressing his full body weight on her, pinning her to the scanner, making escape impossible.

Shifting uncomfortably under the boy, Yumi opened her mouth to speak. To protest, to question what was going on, to say that she knew it was XANA. Her voice was silenced once again, but this time it was by the scanner doors closing and the sense of reality being taken away from her as she was taken to the virtual world.

* * *

Jeremy's room had been silent for some time now, and that silence was only broken with the beeping of Jeremy's laptop, signalling some form of activity on Lyoko. Jeremy opened the laptop, not bothering to see if the others were interested, which at this moment in time, they weren't.

Odd was still confused about why Ulrich was late; how he lost the diary and what had pissed him off so much that he was passed the point of caring that Yumi was gone.

Aelita was still shaken over the news; she had never experienced feeling like this before, since feelings are extremely limited on lyoko. Tears still stung in her eyes as she gazed at her hands.

Ulrich wasn't anything really, he wasn't sure what to feel, part of him was still angry at Yumi, and another was angry at himself, and there was that small part that was just upset and sad. The part that told him to get up and slap some sense into Yumi or Jeremy or himself for how they'd handled this situation.

The three of them were taken out of whatever trance they were in when they heard Jeremy gasp at whatever it was had greeted him when he'd checked the laptop.

"What the…" he said staring at the screen in shock, as he began to type, opening folder after folder, checking everything to make sure the machine in front of him just hadn't made a mistake.

"What is it?" Aelita asked quietly.

Jeremy was silent for a moment, still trying to make sense of everything, before answering, "…Yumi's been virtualised onto Lyoko."


	7. The truth's out

Chapter 7 and now I have to actually start writing this instead of checking xD oh well, if all goes according to plan, there should be about 2 more chapters. I don't even know how to end this I'm terrible at ending things.

* * *

**The truth's out, her secret's known.  
**Chapter 7

"What?!" Aelita asked shooting up, tears brimming in her eyes once more, "…but that's _impossible_! Neither of us had ever told her how to do a delayed virtualisation, and _they_ don't know," she finished gesturing to a now distraught Odd and a still emotionless Ulrich.

"But what if it wasn't Yumi who started the delayed virtualisation," Jeremy answered typing frantically, "I'm not sure what, but, there was some activity not long before Yumi was virtualised."

"...but we haven't done anything on Lyoko today," Aelita said after some thought, "and I don't think you had anything running did you Jeremy?"  
Jeremy shook his head, "I haven't had chance to do anything really, I've been spending most of my time working on ways to get William back."

"It must have been XANA then...right?" Odd asked unsure of his reasoning as he rarely understood a word the two of them said when it came to computers and Lyoko.  
"Yes Odd," Aelita confirmed the boys thought, "XANA must have done something to get Yumi to the factory and then virtualise her."  
"But the question is what did he do?" Jeremy murmured, deep in thought.

The room remained silent for a moment, until Ulrich shrugged his shoulders, got off of Jeremy's bed and began to head for he door. That made Odd finally snap.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" he shouted glaring at the boy, but Ulrich remained silent and emotionless as the shorter one pinned him against the door with his expression alone, "look, I don't care what happened earlier, but I know that you're worried about Yumi, so stop being such an idiot and start showing that you care!"

Ulrich was silent for few more seconds before answering, "so what if I care, it's not like she gives a shit, I mean I try and be a good friend, and I told her that I know, and she just runs off..."

Aelita and Jeremy raised an eyebrow at the 'I told her I know' part, but the two boys paid no attention.

Odd's expression softened as he sighed, "what so she knows?"  
"She knows and she has the diary back," Ulrich answered and he too sighed, letting go if his emotionless mask.

Odd just nodded and placed a hand on Ulrich's shoulder, "c'mon you saw how annoyed she was when I tried to take her diary and considering what's in there I can't imagine she's be that happy with you knowing about it," and he laughed as a faint smile made it's way onto Ulrich's face.

"What do you mean by _I told her I know_," Jeremy asked, interrupting the two boys, who were know looking at each other as if having a mental conversation, before nodding in a small agreement.

"Look," Ulrich said standing up, "I know that Yumi wouldn't want me to tell you, but, I guess I have to..." he sighed before continuing, "basically, when she was in Japan, Yumi went to this fortune teller, and this person said everything about Lyoko and how we're the only people who know about it and we're all saving the world and," Ulrich suddenly stopped as he noticed the expression on Jeremy's face.

"He's telling the truth, it's scary how acurate it was to be honest," Odd said and he continued telling the story as he saw Urich's expression at the though of what he'd read after that, "at the end, she said all this stuff about good versus evil; a battle for Yumis heart, and pretty much, a battle between Ulrich and William," he shrugged when he was finished.

The two brains of the group took a minute to process the information they had just received, each contemplating their response to it.

"So is that why Yumi's been acting like this?" Aelita asked.

The boys shrugged, "we don't know, but, it seems to fit," Ulrich answered.

"I highly doubt that it was _just _the fortune teller involved in knowing the information," Jeremy stated opening the door and motioning for them to leave.

They all left Jeremy's room and continued their conversation on the way to the factory.

"So you think it was XANA?" Aelita asked.

"That's what we thought," Ulrich interrupted, "…but there wasn't a XANA attack while she was away, which is why we thought it was strange."

"...that's not entirely true," Jeremy said after a moment and the group stopped in the middle of the sewers, "there was an attack."

"Why did you tell us Jeremy?" Aelita asked, confused as to wyh he wouldn't mention something like this.

He sighed, "the attack was at about 2am and by the time I'd woken up and was actually able to process the fact that there was an attack it was gone."

"But is it even _possible _for XANA to launch an attack that far away?" Odd questioned practically ignoring Jeremy's explanation.

"Using the network Odd, it is possible," Jeremy said "but I still don't know _how _XANA would know about Yumi's holiday, and _why _he would give us a previous warning about an attack he's planning?"

"Maybe he knew what our reactions would be?" Aelita mentioned, "maybe he's trying to get us all on Lyoko."

"How would he know what our reactions would be?" Odd said.

"Well, maybe all the times we've been to Lyoko, XANA's been gathering data on how we act and fight," she explained.

"But that means the he could know _everything _about us, our problems…besides him, what we care about, he could target anything," Ulrich continued, "_and_, he would have data on how we fight."

"We heed to make a plan," Jeremy stated pulling himself up through the manhole near the factory, "Ulrich, if this is the time that you fight William, and if it _is _as big a fight as you say it is, then I'll need to do some updates to your data and life points; Odd I suggest that you and Aelita find and help Yumi since there isn't an activated tower."

They all nodded stepping into the elevator as Jeremy typed in the code and they went down. Without even waiting, Jeremy leapt onto his chair and spun round to face the computer screen.

"Ok," he said, "before you go to Lyoko, I'm going to try and find Yumi and install those updates," he set the updates going before opening up a window in order to find their friend.

Typing away frantically, Jeremy put in all the information available that could help find her, whilst the others could only stand there and watch.

Mere minutes felt like painful hours for Ulrich, along with the rest of them; he felt so useless, computers weren't what he was good at…it was the fighting. The frustrated boy only changed his thoughts when the scan finished.

"She's in the dessert sector," Jeremy said as Ulrich ran towards the elevator.

"WAIT!" Jeremy shouted, stopping him in his tracks, "before you go, let me finish the updates," for the second time, the computer whizz typed frantically, "ok, go."

Ulrich didn't need telling twice, along with Aelita and Odd, he practically jumped down the hole to the scanner room.

TRANSFERE.

SCANNER.

VIRTUALISATION.

Ulrich landed onto the floor of the dessert sector with a thud, quickly followed by the other two.

"Ok, Jeremy," Ulrich said looking around, "where's Yumi?"

"_She should be just over the hill to the east."_

The warriors turned around before sprinting towards the hill, Ulrich breaking into a super sprint half way there and Odd running on all fours.

He stopped when he got to the top of the hill and looked around; his vaguely hopeful expression disappeared when he saw nothing more than sand flats and dunes.

"She's not here Jeremy," Odd said, disappointment evident in his voice, when he had caught up.

"_She should be, unless XANA's bugged up the program," _he replied, _"I'll check."_

The two boys stood there a looked around whilst Aelita caught up to them and stopped, "where's Yumi?" she asked when she saw no sight of her best friend.

"We don't know, Jeremy thinks that XANA's bugged up the system aga…" Ulrich's explanation was cut short when a distant screaming could be heard.

They all looked around wildly trying to locate the origins of it, and if it wasn't for Odd's cat-like hearing they probably wouldn't have found it.

"Where's it coming from?" Ulrich asked worriedly.

Odd simply pointed up towards the sky, where a small but gradually increasing dot could be seen rushing towards them.

"It's…" Aelita started to make out the figure, "…it's Yumi…but…how could she even get up there."

"Yumi!" Ulrich shouted still looking up, trying to guess where she'd land…but it was practically impossible.

"Yumi!" he shouted again, the three of them started to run to various places hoping that someone would catch her, but alas it was not meant to be. Yumi came down like a ton of bricks, smashing into only area of floor not covered by the three. They all ran straight to her, hoping that she was all right.

"Why didn't she devirtualise?" Odd asked standing over her, "wouldn't a fall like that take away her life points?"

Aelita just shrugged as she too was confused over the whole situation.

"Yumi are you ok?" Ulrich said bending down to help her up.

Yumi tried to push herself up on her own, but her arms just shook and gave way beneath her, causing her to fall back to the floor. Ulrich carefully grabbed her shoulders and started to help her onto her feet; once she was on her feet, Yumi immediately clutched Ulrich's shoulders in order to steady herself. She dropped her head; her raven hair covering her face.

"Yumi…" Ulrich whispered looking at her, "…I…"

"_Aelita can you give me a visual please," _Jeremys voice rang through sector.

Aelita closed her eyes for a second before opening them, allowing Jeremy to see what she could; Yumi clutching Ulrichs shoulders as she tried to steady herself.

"_Ok Aelita that's it," _Aelita repeated her action, stopping the connection.

"Yumi," Ulrich said again, "what…happened?"

The only answer Ulrich got was more chocked sobs and it was obvious to everyone that were they not on Lyoko, the girl would be crying.

He sighed and shook his head, "Yumi, I know that you don't want to tell us, but after this, I think it's for the best."

Yumi looked up and nodded weekly before taking a deep breath, "while I was in J-Japan," she stuttered, her voice was shaky but understandable, "I went to this fortune teller, she said all these things about us and X-XANA, and how we save the world," she drew an unsteady breath before continuing, "she also said something about Ulrich a-and…William, she said that they were going to get into a huge fight, that would decide the outcome of everything we've done…I was scared to go to Lyoko because I didn't want Ulrich and William to end up fighting, and I had no idea of what the end result would be…I didn't want to risk everything…" through the whole explanation, Yumi never looked up.

"I see," Jeremy said, saying nothing about how they already knew, "look Yumi, whilst you were in Japan, there was a XANA attack, it didn't do anything to us, and it even deactivated itself, but, I think that it had something to do with your fortune teller."

Yumi stood away from Ulrich, ready to ask Jeremy how it was even possible that XANA could do that, when a few sarcastic claps could be heard from a lone tower a few metres away.

Yumi flinched at the figure she saw stepping out; she knew that she'd see him again before she left Lyoko, but why now…

'Why?' she thought, 'I've only just got to see Ulrich again after everything…why so so soon…William?'


	8. APOLOGY

**Apology**

Everyone who's still interested in this fanfic probably would've noticed that I haven't updated in a while.

Look, I'm **really **sorry; there are loads of reasons why I haven't updated. One of the main ones is that I've just started to loose interest myself, but, I swear that I won't leave this fic unfinished.

I've got a few more weeks at school, and then I've got the summer holidays. In the first week I'm going away; I'm gonna do a lot of writing while I'm away because I'm going to get really bored. When I'm come back from my holiday, hopefully I'll have chapter 8 nearly finished.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited or alerted this story and I promise that I haven't abandoned this.

**Please be patient. ^_^**

~Koneko on Lyoko~


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